Verb – Present tense (1p, 2p)

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• The morphology of the present tense 1p, 2p
• The concepts of eventuality time, utterance time, and reference time and how they relate to the tense and aspect of the present tense

VocabularyVocabulary

MorphologyMorphology: Verb – Present 1p, 2p

• The 1p form κράζομεν ‘we are shouting’ has an o-class vowel like the 1s form
• The 2p form κράζετε ‘y’all are shouting’ has an e-class vowel like the 2s form

SemanticsSemantics: Verb semantics

In 2.1.4.2, we introduced the idea that the present tense refers to a time period that is shorter than the time period of the event. If Joseph travels from Bethlehem to Jerusalem from 3:00–5:00, we can use the present tense to talk about what he is doing at 4:20. We also mentioned that this same temporal relationship holds for states as well. In light of this, two concepts are introduced here: eventuality and aspect. The term eventuality is used in linguistics as a cover term for both events and states. Aspect is the relationship between the time being discussed and the time of the eventuality. In other words, it is a relationship between two time intervals or points, which we will call “spans”. One of these spans is called the